# Pipe mud and other things



## wolfmanxiii (Sep 29, 2010)

Alright, so I've 'mudded' a few of my pipes that seemed to have high draft holes. While this helped them out I noticed that my pipes don't dry as quickly anymore and tend to collect more moisture which leads to other problems with smoking them. Is this an issue anyone else runs into?

I got worried that the moisture was going to make the bottom of my bowls soggy so I gently reamed and scooped my mud out. 

Another question I had was regarding denicool crystals. My brother who is another amateur pipe smoker uses them and says they are great, but he is using estate pipes that are already broken...most of my pipes are fairly new so I am concerned with them getting in the way of forming a proper cake. Also I've been told that kosher salt is a pretty good substitute for denicool crystals, any thoughts on this?


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## CWL (Mar 25, 2010)

I'm guessing that your raising of the bowl bottom made it easier for moisture to get sucked into the draft hole. 

I've never tried anything, but salt wouldn't be my first choice. It seems to me that salt will dissolve with moisture and change the taste of your tobacco. I have heard of charcoal granules and kitty litter clay being used on the bottom of pipes and would go with either of these before using salt. -Just an opinion.


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## wolfmanxiii (Sep 29, 2010)

Thank you for the quick reply...though I should mention that my issue is not with moisture in the draft hole itself so much as it is moisture that seems to be collecting in the pipe mud and for some reason taking longer to dissolve than when I didn't have mud in it.

The reason for considering the denicool crystals is that I have read that they keep the tobacco out of the heel of the bowl so they could be used as an alternative to mudding my pipes.


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Thanks for posting this, Cody. I was thinking of mudding one of my pipes that had a high draft hole, but the other problem the pipe has is that it can turn tobacco dust into a wet smoke. I guess I'll just let it be what it is.


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## wolfmanxiii (Sep 29, 2010)

Don't totally rule it out yet Mark...I'm starting to wonder if I didn't just make my pipe mud a little too soft causing it to never properly cure. I recall seeing a video or a pictorial a while back where a gent was showing how to make pipe mud. The mud he made seemed much thicker and more "puddy-like" than mine. I may experiment on one of my pipes with this.


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## GlassEye (Oct 25, 2009)

I was having issues like you describe with a cob that I mudded with cigar ash/honey. I just let the mud dry for over a week and that allowed it to really cure and set, after I smoked it the first few times I would shake the ash up with a thumb over the top of the bowl. That pipe now smokes dry and has a pretty tough mud coating that has held up to poking and scraping, it also does not get soggy like it did when I first put in the mud.


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## shannensmall (Jun 30, 2010)

Common sense would tell me you want a putty with a consistency like play-doe. No?

I ask, cause I have a few new MM cobs on the way and plan on doing the ash putty treatment to them.


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## Commander Quan (May 6, 2003)

shannensmall said:


> Common sense would tell me you want a putty with a consistency like play-doe. No?
> 
> I ask, cause I have a few new MM cobs on the way and plan on doing the ash putty treatment to them.


Do a search here for wood putty I think it was Mad Hatter that talked about using it to raise the heal of a pipe


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## wolfmanxiii (Sep 29, 2010)

Re: Shannen, yes I am currently trying to get mine as close to the consistency of a putty as I can. However this can be difficult with nothing but honey and ash.

Alright, last Wed. or Thurs. I messed with mudding some of my pipes again. I had already reemed the old mud out of them, so I didn't have to do that. I did however make up a batch of mud and mixed ash and honey while tweaking it to get just the right consistency. I did this for over an hour to make sure it was thoroughly mixed, and yes, by the end of it my hands were covered in pipe mud. This time I got a consistency VERY close to putty, it was much darker than my last batch as well. I won't know how well this works out until at least the middle of this week. I'll be checking the pipes regularly and when I think they've fully 'cured' we'll see what happens.

Also, I had conversation with Dave at Walker Briar Works and he had a different opinion when it comes to pipe mud. Hopefully he doesn't mind me quoting him, "I'm really not a fan of pipe mud for raising tobacco chambers. It winds up getting yucky after a few smokes. Putty gets soft when it gets hot, and probably puts off some nasty fumes from the cooking chemicals in it. I use a mixture of Sodium Silicate and Carbon powder to do that. It is hard as glass, isn't effected by heat, and lasts forever. Sodium Silicate is the stuff the Chinese put on their 4,000 year old eggs so they don't rot. You can get both Sodium Silicate and Carbon powder on Ebay. It really isn't expensive."

So if the mud doesn't work, I'll be trying this out.


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## Mister Moo (Sep 8, 2005)

I've made it too mud-like and it never got super-hard; make it more like paste than mud and it's good to go in a few days - let it get hot but treat it gently for a few smokes. They oughta call it pipe paste. Everyone sez use fine cigar - not pipe - ash for best results.

WillJ, elsewhere, swore by what came to be known as the fishshit method. Will was very keen on activated charcoal (fishtank filter media) ground to dust and mixed with a small amount of grape jelly to make a paste. He said it made the best of the best. I've never tried it but Will is wise.


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## PinkFloydFan (Oct 1, 2009)

I made a Mud Pictorial a while back..

Vins Mud Tutorial 

Still works well for me.

Good Luck bro.

Vin


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## wolfmanxiii (Sep 29, 2010)

Hey Vinny,

Thanks for the link! Your tutorial is actually the one I was referring to where I noticed your mud ended up thicker than my original batch. I'm letting my current batch of mudded pipes cure much longer than I did last time...especially because I noticed one in particular I almost never smoke, sat for a long time after I originally mudded it and it's like cement in the bottom of the pipe.


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